60 ● INC. ● SEPTEMBER 2019 ● ● ● PHOTOGRAPH BY BRYAN SCHUTMAAT

T

o commemorate Inc.’s 40th

anniversary, we’re matching

40 aspiring founders with

40 experienced mentors for 

the Founders Project. Our

mentor in this issue, Sarah

LaFleur, was once a recent

Harvard graduate and jet-

setting associate at a private

equity firm who worked

on luxury goods deals. She

always felt underwhelmed by her clothing options—but

of course she would be: LaFleur was raised by a mother

who sported Parisian suits and worked in fashion.

So LaFleur ditched the cosseted world of private equity to

channel her enmity for “frumpy pantsuits” into the women’s

workwear startup M.M.LaFleur. Named after her mother,

M.M.LaFleur puts Japanese and Italian fabrics in the hands of

pedigreed designers to create tailored women’s suits and sepa-

rates. The direct-to-consumer brand launched in New York

City in 2013, but found its groove a year later with the Bento

Box—a customized, try-at-home sampler of chic. In three short

years, the company rocketed from about $300,000 in sales to

$22.5 million, making M.M.LaFleur No. 43 on our 2017 list of

the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. The

company is still expanding rapidly, with revenue estimated at

more than $70 million in 2018.

LaFleur’s mentee, Michelle DeLoach, lived far from any

fashion capital, but she doesn’t lack for style—or entrepre-

neurial drive. She graduated from Texas State University in

San Marcos, Texas, as a sorority sister without much use for

her communications degree. But her mother was a talented

seamstress, and, like LaFleur’s, imbued her daughter with a

love for fashion. DeLoach kicked around in department store

sales for a while before stepping out on her own to sell cus-

tomized dresses, door-to-door, to women at Lone Star college

sororities. After she landed six group-sales orders totaling

$35,000, her Austin-based startup, Revelry, was born.

As DeLoach’s business matured with her customers, so did

her product. Revelry moved into bridal wear by sourcing

better-quality fabrics to design light and flow-y bridesmaid

dresses and bridal gowns that women can try on at home.

That pivot brought her $3.8 million in sales in 2018 and the

No. 326 spot on this year’s list.

But this founder, who made her first sales in person,

needed guidance on executing a more aggressive digital

marketing strategy. DeLoach was eager to work with our Inc.

500 alum—and who could blame her, given that LaFleur has

increased her company’s sales 50-fold in the past five years?

What follows is an edited excerpt from the first conversation

of their six-month-long mentoring relationship.